Cardinal urges Senate to pass bill protecting conscience

NANCY FRAZIER O'BRIEN

CNS STORY: Cardinal urges Senate to pass bill protecting conscience in health care Home | About Us | Contacts | Products News Items Top Stories News Briefs Vatican Origins Africa Headlines Also Featuring Movie Reviews Sunday Scripture CNS Blog Links to Clients Major Events 2008 papal visit World Youth Day John Paul II For Clients Client Login CNS Insider We're also on ... Facebook Twitter RSS Feeds Top Stories Vatican Movie Reviews CNS Blog . For More Info If you would like more information about Catholic News Service, please contact CNS at one of the following: cns@ catholicnews.com or (202) 541-3250 . Copyright This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, except by linking to a page on this site. . CNS Story: HHS-DINARDO Feb-15-2012 (730 words) With photo. xxxn Cardinal urges Senate to pass bill protecting conscience in health care By Nancy Frazier O'Brien Catholic News Service WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Pro-Life Activities called on members of the U.S. Senate Feb. 15 to solve conscience protection problems with the federal health reform law by passing the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act. By resolving a "needless dispute," Congress and the Obama administration "could return to the most pressing of all the real problems -- the fact that many millions of Americans still lack basic coverage for health care," said Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston. In a three-page letter to senators, Cardinal DiNardo said the legislation -- which now has 37 sponsors in the Senate -- might come up for a vote soon, "either as a free-standing bill or an amendment." Calling the bill "needed, reasonable and carefully crafted," he said it "simply ensures that new requirements" under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act "are not used to take away a freedom of conscience that Americans have enjoyed under federal law until now." The bishops "saw the need for this legislation," the cardinal said, when Congress passed health care reform and "authorized new lists of federally mandated benefits for all health plans without including language to preserve rights of conscience." The cardinal rejected the final rule announced Feb. 10 by President Barack Obama that would allow organizations with religious objections to the Department of Health and Human Services' requirement that all health insurance plans cover contraceptives and sterilization to decline to cover them, but then compel the insurers to provide contraceptives free of charge to women they insure. Under that plan, religious employers will be required to "i.......